Introduction: Executive function, a set of higher order cognitive skills underlying goal‐directed behaviors, develops rapidly during preschool years. Reward increases executive function engagement in adolescents and adults. However, there is still a scarcity of data on how reward affects executive function in young children. The present study examines whether different incentive types contribute differently to executive function performance and neural activity in children.Methods: Twenty‐five preschoolers of 5–6 years old were provided an incentive Go/No‐go task, comparing social, nonsocial, and nonreward conditions. Activations in the prefrontal regions during the tasks were measured using functional near‐infrared spectroscopy.Results: The results revealed that social reward enhanced right prefrontal activations in young children. In contrast to adult literature, younger children did not show any significant differences in executive function performance across conditions.Conclusion: This study expands our understanding of motivation and EF engagement in preschoolers. Specifically, social reward enhanced prefrontal activations in young children. The implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Executive function (EF) is an early cognitive skill that rapidly develops during the preschool years. One of the common EF issues in young children is inhibitory control. This study investigates the impact of music-movement activities on children’s inhibitory control. We designed the music-movement training (MMT) program for preschoolers to practice monitoring and controlling their actions. A quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest design was used to investigate the effectiveness of the MMT program on children’s EF. Preschoolers age 4–5 years old were assigned to receive the 45-minute MMT, three times/week, for eight weeks (n = 39; 21 boys, mean age 4.36 ± 0.42 years), or regular classroom activities (n = 40; 17 boys, mean age 4.49 ± 0.29 years). After training, the MMT group showed greater improvement in the performance of inhibitory control tasks as compared to the control group, but showed no significant change in working memory and cognitive flexibility. In conclusion, music-movement activities may be helpful for teachers to enhance inhibitory control in preschool children. We suggest that the preschool curriculum should emphasize more music-movement activities by integrating them into everyday learning activities.

The GABAergic synapse undergoes structural and functional maturation during early brain development. Maternal stress alters GABAergic synapses in the pup's brain that are associated with the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric disorders in adults; however, the mechanism for this is still unclear. In this study, we examined the effects of maternal restraint stress on the development of Cation-Chloride Cotransporters (CCCs) and the GABAA receptor α1 and α5 subunits in the hippocampus of rat pups at different postnatal ages. Our results demonstrate that maternal restraint stress induces a transient but significant increase in the level of NKCC1 (Sodium-Potassium Chloride Cotransporter 1) only at P14, followed by a brief, yet significant increase in the level of KCC2 (Potassium-Chloride Cotransporter 2) at P21, which then decreases from P28 until P40. Thus, maternal stress alters NKCC1 and KCC2 ratio in the hippocampus of rat pups, especially during P14 to P28. Maternal restraint stress also caused biphasic changes in the level of GABAA receptor subunits in the pup's hippocampus. GABAA receptor α1 subunit gradually increased at P14 then decreased thereafter. On the contrary, GABAA receptor α5 subunit showed a transient decrease followed by a long-term increase from P21 until P40. Altogether, our study suggested that the maternal restraint stress might delay maturation of the GABAergic system by altering the expression of NKCC1, KCC2 and GABAA receptor α1 and α5 subunits in the hippocampus of rat pups. These changes demonstrate the dysregulation of inhibitory neurotransmission during early life, which may underlie the pathogenesis of psychiatric diseases at adolescence.